West Chester pleased with storm response

WEST CHESTER – Borough officials were happy to report no significant damages resulted from Hurricane Sandy’s visit as of Tuesday morning.

“The borough was very lucky, the damage that we sustained was relatively little,” said Carolyn Comitta, West Chester mayor.

Initial damage assessments Tuesday found all roads in the borough to be functional and all areas that were flooded Monday night had drained and were expected to remain open, according to Jon Brill, borough emergency management coordinator. During the storm, seven sections of borough streets were closed to flooding and Price Street at South Brandywine Street was closed for a downed tree.

While the borough fared well as a whole, it was not without incident. Late Monday, an uprooted tree fell onto a house at 524 South Walnut Street. No injuries were reported and the residents were provided with shelter. The borough emergency services handled a number of calls for power wires and transformers through the night.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, about 800 PECO customers in the borough were without power, though service was expected to return soon.

“The West Chester emergency operations center is now closed and all borough services have returned to normal status,” Brill said. “The job has now turned to cleanup and the effects were minimal.”

Public Works Director Bob Wilpizeski said the department had not seen anything that revealed any true damage and the flooding was on par with other rainstorms the borough has experienced.

“All things considered we are doing pretty well,” Wilpizeski said.

Fortunately for the borough, this week was the start of their scheduled fall leaf collection, which Wilpizeski said helped make cleanup easier to mobilize.

He added that crews worked around the clock to ensure storm drains were not obstructed.

“They said this was like another rainy day and (they) were not in any position where they felt their safety was compromised,” Wilpizeski said of his workers.

Barricades were placed about dinner time on Monday, though Wilpizeski said most were taken down by about 1 a.m. Tuesday.

Wilpizeski said employees will follow up with the downtown business district on Wednesday, though the work will mainly consist of leaf, litter and stick cleanup.